Many service providers are concerned about the financial and/or environmental implications of their electrical power consumption. One of the primary sources of many service providers' electrical power consumption is the physical communication links (e.g., fiber optic links) between routers. These communication links are often used by service providers to facilitate and/or direct the flow of network traffic within their networks.
In some situations, service providers may bundle these links together as a Link Aggregation Group (LAG) (sometimes also referred to as a “LAG bundle”) that acts as a single logical connection between routers. These LAG bundles may serve a variety of purposes. For example, a conventional LAG bundle may increase the amount of communication throughput and/or bandwidth available between routers. Additionally or alternatively, the conventional LAG bundle may facilitate communication load-balancing and/or high availability of communication between the routers in the event that one or more of the links included in the LAG bundle experience a failure.
Unfortunately, the links included in the conventional LAG bundle may cause the routers to consume electrical power even when those links are not facilitating and/or directing significant amounts of network traffic. As a result, such a LAG bundle may potentially lead to high energy costs and/or negative environmental impact. The instant disclosure, therefore, identifies and addresses a need for apparatuses, systems, and methods for improving the energy efficiency of LAG bundles.